TEHRAN — 11 Iranian educational institutions are ranked among the best global universities by the U.S. News & World Report, a multi-platform publisher of news and information providing authoritative rankings of best colleges, best graduate schools and best hospitals.

These institutions from the U.S. and around 60 other countries have been ranked based on 12 indicators that measure their academic research performance and their global and regional reputations.

Sharif University of Technology, University of Tehran, Isfahan University of Technology, Amirkabir University of Technology, Islamic Azad University of Karaj, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tarbiat Modarres University, University of Tabriz, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences are respectively the top 11 Iranian universities ranked among world’s top 1,000 universities in the U.S. News 2017 university ranking.

The number of the Iranian universities have increased by three since last year as University of Tabriz, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, and Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences are listed among the top universities for the first time this year, head of Islamic World Science Citation Center (ISC) said.

Coming in 435th last year, Sharif University has managed to improve its previous ranking by securing the 405th place among world’s top universities in U.S. News 2017 ranking, IRNA news agency quoted Mohammad-Javad Dehqani as saying.

Moreover Islamic Azad University of Karaj which came in 629th has made a remarkable improvement as it held the 736th place last year, Dehqani added.

Iran has also succeeded in keeping the second place regarding the number of the top universities in the region after Turkey, Dehqani highlighted.

According to the U.S. News website Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University are the world’s top universities.

MQ/MG